Bridgeport FFA Top 3 in State: State Superior Chapter

Bridgeport FFA Named Top 3 Chapter Statewide; Texas Superior Chapter

July 9, 2011. San Angelo Texas.

Agriculture Educators from across the state met to judge, grade, and award student scholarships, proficiency winners, star awards, and chapter awards.

News reached Bridgeport yesterday that the 8th largest chapter in the state of Texas is ranked in the top 3 in the state in the National Chapter Award and has been given the title of a Texas Superior Chapter. This is an increase from 23rd in last years standings. There are 1006 active FFA chapters in the state and over 80,000 FFA members making the Texas FFA the largest student lead youth organization in the state.

The National Chapter Award program is designed to award FFA chapters who actively implement the FFA mission and strategies. These chapters improve chapter operations by using a Program of Activities (POA), which emphasizes student development, chapter development and community development. Chapters are rewarded for providing educational experiences for their entire membership.

The National Chapter award will now be sent to the National FFA Organization where our chapter will receive the ranking of 1, 2, or 3 star chapter with 3 star being the highest award a chapter can earn from the National FFA Organization. Less than 1 percent of the chapters in the Nation receive the 3 star ranking and this year, Bridgeport FFA has an EXCELLENT CHANCE to win this award!

Additionally, the bridgeport FFA finished 36th in the state in the Golden Horizon Award. This results in a gold chapter rating as well for the chapter. This award measures the most active chapters in the state by keeping track of how many contests and competitions they are in as well as how many camps and conventions they travel to. This is only a state level award.

Looking at these two awards it is easy to see the Bridgeport FFA is achieving better results on less travel and participation than many chapters in the state! Congratulations to the Members of the Bridgeport FFA for building a sustainably great chapter which is providing quality opportunities for all student members!

The executive officers, student members, and advisors would like to say a big "THANK YOU" to the staff, administration, community and booster club who helped make this possible! Be sure to Like our Facebook page or follow us on Twitter @bridgeportffa. If you would like to join the booster club, please send a message to our advisors Cody McCauley, Jeff Klose, or Karl Little for more information about who to contact.

Respectfully Submitted:

Kathryn McCauley

Bridgeport FFA Reporter 2011-2012

Area Speaking Champions!!!

Bridgeport FFA is proving its prowess in the FFA Public Speaking Contests again! This spring semester four Bridgeport FFA members competed in the Area five speaking events. Sarah Cline, Madi Manoushagian, and Kathryn McCauley competed in Soil Stewardship Public Speaking, Sr. Prepared Public Speaking, and Jr. Prepared Public Speaking respectively. Each of these students brought home the District and Area championships and will compete at the state convention this July in Lubbock to determine who is the best public speaker in the state. In addition to these students, Angelica Martinez will compete in the Spanish Creed Speaking contest in Lubbock as well. Cameron Crawford finished 7th in the area in Sr. Prepared Public Speaking.

Sarah Cline is a senior at Bridgeport High School and her speech was over the effect that the Cap and Trade bill will have on forestry, and soil and water conservation. Her speech received first at District and Area. This is not her first visit to the State FFA competition. She has already received a 500-dollar scholarship for her area win, and stands to win a 3,000-dollar scholarship if she wins the state contest.

This past year Kline won the Sr. Prepared state competition and advanced to nationals and was part of the Bridgeport Agriculture Issues team, which placed seventh at state. She hopes to add one more accolade to her already successful speaking career.

Madi Manoushagain is currently a sophomore at Bridgeport High School and she presented a speech over food safety legislation, Senate Bill 510. Her speech received first at District and Area as well. This will be Manoushagian’s first attempt at a state public speaking event. She was also a member of Bridgeport’s Agriculture Issues team, as well as being a member of numerous other LDE and CDE teams.

Kathryn McCauley is a freshman at Bridgeport High School. She gave a speech over In-vitro meat. McCauley was an alternate on the Ag issues team, which advanced to state and a part of the state advancing Horse Evaluation team as well. The Jr. Prepared contest is limited to seventh, eighth, and ninth grade students in Texas this is McCauley’s third year to compete. She was 3rd in Area as a 7th grader.

Martinez is a freshman at Bridgeport High School as well. She is bi-lingual and will be presenting the FFA Creed in Spanish at the second annual Spanish Creed Speaking state contest held in Lubbock.

Each student will do their presentation and then stand for a 5-minute question and answer period over their topic with a panel of industry experts. Students winning the State Jr. or Sr. Prepared contests or State Spanish Creed contest will receive 1,000-dollar scholarships upon enrollment in college. Last year, the Bridgeport FFA completed the task of winning two state speaking contests in the same year. This year they hope to make it 4, a feat that has never been accomplished in the Texas FFA’s 82 year history.

To learn more about the Bridgeport FFA, or see results as they are posted, check out their Blog at: www.bridgeporttxffa.blogspot.com or follow us on Twitter @bridgeportffa.

Submitted:

Kathryn McCauley

2011-2012 Reporter

Bridgeport FFA Chapter

WE'RE BAAAAAAAACK!

Well folks, it has been a long hiatus.  I am happy to say we have been very busy and accomplished many great things in that time.  The Tractor Tech, Horse, Livestock, Range, Cotton, Wool, and Plant ID teams all competed on the state level.  We did not win any contests, but did well with really young students.  We only had 4 seniors on 15 CDE teams that will be graduating and only 4 juniors...and none of them were on the same teams.  This means there were LOTS of freshman, sophomores, and 8th graders who gained invaluable experience this year.

We have also had local and district officer elections and public speaking contests.  Madi Manoushagian and Evan Hunter are now District officers, and we have a whole new set of 10 executive officers and all committee chair positions have been filled. 

We won the district and area Jr. Prepared, Sr. Prepared, and Soil Stewardship speaking contests and all those students will be competing at state....

I would also like to tell everyone to like our facebook page by clicking the link on the top left of our blog homepage. Also follow us on twitter @bridgeportffa. Kathryn McCauley is our new reporter and will be taking over the social media work!

CDE SEASON IN TEXAS!!!!

Career Development Events (CDE)...In Texas, we separate our contests into Leadership Development (LDE) and Career Development....There are 25 CDE teams in Texas.  We will train 18 of them this year (we had students in all 12 LDE's and will have students in all 4 speaking events).  We attended our first pre-area contests this past week!  Results and pictures below:

Jack County Land and Range Contest/Jacksboro FFA Contest/Perrin Livestock Contest:

These contests all happened in Jacksboro Texas:

Bridgeport FFA Results: 

Land Judging: 2nd High Individual, 7th Place team overall.
Poultry Evaluation: 10th Place and 27th Place Teams...
Dairy Foods: 19th Place Team
Livestock Evaluation: 9th High Individual, 8th Place Team, and 13th Place Team.


Then we went to the Parker County Rivalry Contest held at Brock High School

Bridgeport FFA Results:

Dairy Foods: 14th Place Team
Land Judging: 10th Place Team
Poultry: 8th Place Team
Wildlife: 16th Place Team with only 2 participants on a 3 person contest (and they were both 8th graders!)

Great Job Overall: 39 Teams were represented and over 600 students participated in these contests.  Of the 25 students who participated, 21 of them were first year participants and these were their first contests...we continue to learn and continue to get better....moving from good to great!

FFA WEEK 2011: FRIDAY = A GOOD DAY FOR COFFEE

This morning it was a brisk 34 degrees in Bridgeport Texas; a PERFECT day for Coffee.  As part of National FFA Week, Bridgeport FFA Members set up in the High School Commons to promote Coffee in the Commons, FFA Week and CTE Month.  Coffee was provided for community members and guests to the school.  Coffee Shop music was playing, iPads displayed the days news from CNN, Politico, and ABC.  The Bloomberg APP on the iPad helped guests see the Coffee Commodity Exchange, and Agricultural fact sheets about coffee were provided for participants!

FFA WEEK 2011: THURSDAY

Today, student officers spent the morning passing out FFA EMBLEM stickers to students who, for a 1 dollar donation to the Danny Gunn Scholarship Fund, were allowed to wear a hat during school today.  Students had to display their FFA Sticker or they were not allowed to wear their hat!  What a great way to get the brand out there to the rest of the teachers and students in our school.  An official total on the amount raised will be announced tomorrow!  Thank you so much Bridgeport High School for your generocity!

FFA WEEK 2011: WEDNESDAY

Today, Bridgeport FFA members met and prepared breakfast for the faculty and staff at BHS.  Teachers were challenged to guess how many people were involved in their breakfast from farm to fork!  Many guesses came in, but Mr. Dickinson wins the award for his response: "THOUSANDS".  That's right Mr. Dickinson...in our breakfast of sausage egg and cheese burrito's on flour tortillas with salsa, there were literally thousands of people involved in the production, marketing, processing, distribution and sales of those products!  Remember agriculture is the largest supplier of careers in the United States with over 21 percent of our nations workforce coming from agriculture.

NATIONAL FFA WEEK: TUESDAY

DRESS LIKE YOUR FUTURE CAREER DAY:

Today, students dressed like Vets, Nurses, Businessmen/women, Psychiatrists, Psychologists, Equine Therapists, Coaches, Teachers, and scientists...

Three of them dressed up as ag teachers!  The two in this picture were posing as Mr. McCauley and our student teacher from last semester Mr. Mason! There was another young person in a sweater vest who said she wanted to be me!

GREAT job BHS!

NATIONAL FFA WEEK

National FFA week is Feb. 19-26.  The agricultural science department will be doing several activities throughout the week to raise awareness about the FFA in our school and community.

Throughout the week we will be hosting a penny war between classifications.  There will be a large jar for each class (freshman, sophomore, junior and senior) placed in the library.  Pennies count as positive votes, other coins and paper money count as negative votes (nickel = -5, 5 dollar bill = -500). The class with the most votes at the end of the week will win breakfast burrito's the following monday prepared by the ag department.  All proceeds will go to Loose Change to Loosen Chains.  An organization started by a 12 year old, Zach Hunter, to help end slavery worldwide.  When Zach started his mission 5 years ago there were nearly 30 million slaves worldwide, today that number is closer to 26 million.

Each Day of the week will be special as well.

Sunday, Feb. 20th: Students who have Official Dress are encouraged to wear it to church on Sunday and Spread the word about the FFA to those who are interested.

Monday, Feb. 21st: FFA Gear Day.  Wear your FFA T-Shirts, Shoe Strings, Suspenders and Socks if you have them!  Or Official FFA Dress if you have it!  Teachers, if you were an FFA member way back when and you want to wear your jacket that will be GREAT for our kids to see!

Tuesday, Feb. 22nd: Dress like your future Career Day for students. Must be school appropriate. (Teachers, we hope this is your future career, if not, feel free to dress up as well!) Agriculture is currently the only career field in the United states with an expanding job base and growing workforce.  Salaries are high and availability is GREAT compared to all other areas.  Additionally, agriculture is the largest career area in the United States with just over 20 percent of the jobs in the US coming in the agriculture sector!  Many of our students may be planning a career in Agriculture and not even know it!

Wednesday, Feb. 23rd:  Teachers are invited to come down to the ag department for Breakfast Burrito's prepared by the Ag kids before school! Hey, Food is an agricultural product, without Ag, we would all be Naked and Hungry!

Thursday, Feb. 24th: Hat Day.  Students who chose to donate $1.00 will be allowed to wear a had during the day. FFA members and teachers will be set up in the commons that morning.  Any student who donates a dollar will receive an FFA Sticker and must be wearing the sticker to also wear their hat.  If they loose their sticker, that is their fault….

All proceeds will go to the Danny Gunn Memorial Scholarship fund.  Mr. Gunn was an Ag teacher at Idalou high school (just outside of Lubbock) who was hit and killed by a train this year at the San Antonio Stock Show. Mr. Gunn was a mentor of Mr. Klose and Mr. McCauley and one of the most well respected ag teachers in Texas.  Our FFA members have been the beneficiary of his kindness many times in the last three years from practice contests in Idalou to meals eaten together at state contests. Mr. Gunn was a faith filled man who lived the Gospel every day though his actions and was a GREAT example to all who came in contact with him. 

Friday, Feb. 25th: Blue (National FFA Blue, not Decatur Blue) and Gold Day.  Everyone is encouraged to wear blue and gold and show your FFA spirit.

If you have any questions, please let me know!

Thanks so much!


Jeff Klose
Agriculture Science Teacher
Bridgeport High School
940.683.4064
jklose@bridgeportisd.net

Elective Fair BOOMS!

Students flooded the BHS Gym yesterday for the BHS Elective Fair.  Students wandered through 20+ booths for classes and student organizations to make their decision about what courses they should take next year.

The FFA Booth consistently had 30-40 students there talking to both ag teachers and over 20 current FFA members who were answering questions.  All in all, there were about 200 students sign up for an agricultural science class. SUPER PUMPED about the turnout yesterday.  Not only were there good numbers that signed up, but they were ALL HIGH QUALITY students!  Pictures coming soon!

Getting Their Hands Dirty

Students in Mr. Klose's 1st period PAFNR class studied soil properties today.  We textured different samples of soil to determine particle size!  Its always fun to play in the mud!  

GREAT class today! 

Members of the Bridgeport FFA received 5 iPads and have started working on using Social Media in the classroom...students are using twitter to learn about current events and progress in our agricultural world.  Follow us @bridgeportffa @bridgeportffa2 and @bridgeportffa3.

Thanks everyone for your support!

Bridgeport FFA Member and Artist, 1st in Division, Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo

 Morgan Brewer, a senior in the Bridgeport FFA Chapter has won an award for her original artwork entitled: Getting Them There. Brewer is a very good up and coming artist whose work varies across multiple genres and subjects. She placed first in the 15-18 yr old division with this work. Brewer also garnered a $2,000 scholarship.

Morgans artwork will be displayed in the Amon Carter center at the Fort Worth Stock Show until Feb. 2nd at which time it will be moved to either the Cowgirl Hall of Fame, or the Museum of Science and History until Feb. 20th.  There will also be quite a write up with photo's in the Fort Worth Star Telegram's Super Bowl Sunday edition!

Congratulations to Morgan, and thanks for proving that FFA is about more than animals here in Bridgeport, Tx!

Day 2 Goat Results, Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo

In one of the most competitive classes of the show, Madi Manoushagian took 7th place with her 104 lb goat.  The Fort Worth stock show has been very successful for the Bridgeport FFA Chapter. Thanks to all the students, parents, community supporters, teachers and administrators for their help. Two weeks and we leave for San Antonio!

Making the "Dirt"

Senior Success!

In her senior year, Bridgeport FFA member Emily Green has made the "dirt" at the Fort Worth Stock show with her Southdown Lamb.  Only the animals who are kept in the show ring are placed and this is considered making the "dirt". She finished the class in 16th place.  GREAT job Emily and the Green family!

Market Goat Show, Fort Worth Stock Show

Evan Hunter and his 8th place class 3 goat.  Congratulations to Evan and the Hunter family!  Hard work is continuing to pay off at the Fort Worth Stock Show!

Clint Demmitt: Placed 13th with his goat.  This is a goat that the Demmitt family raised.  Congratulations! Now lets get ready for youth fair!

Breeding Goat Results from Fort Worth Stock Show

Congratulations Kara and Clint Demmitt for the following results in the Breeding and Dairy Shows.

Clint Demmitt: Grand Champion Dairy Weather, and a 1st and 2nd place Dairy Weather, 4th Place Lamancha Doe, 7th Place Fullblood Boer Doe Kid.

Kara Demmitt: 3rd Place Dairy Weather, 2nd Place Jr. Nubian Doe, 2nd Place Jr. Lamancha Doe, 10th Place Fullblood Boer Doe Kid, 1st Place Commercial Two-Toothed Doe.

Congratulations Demmitt Family! Hard work does pay off!

Jr. FFA Members Compete in Speed Events at Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo

Cassady Craddock Competed in the POA Show at the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo. She finished 1st in the 9-12 year old Pole Bending, 2nd 9-12 year old Barrel Racing. Please congratulate Cassady if you see her around.

FFA members gear up for Fort Worth Stock Show

Many of our Bridgeport FFA Members are currently showing or getting ready to show at the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo.

Results So Far:

Lauren Stowers - Champion Limousine Heifer Jr. Show, Reserve Champion Limousine Heifer Open Show

Hunter Garcia - 9th Place Beffmaster Heifer.

Fort Worth is one of the largest and most prestigious cattle show's in the Nation. This is quite an accomplishment for both of these young people.  Please congratulate them if you see them.  The Sheep and Goats move in today!  Good luck to all the sheep and goat kids!

Area Tractor Tech. BRIDGEPORT STATE BOUND!!!!

Bridgeport FFA Tractor Team!

In their first year and only second time to compete, the Bridgeport FFA Tractor Technician team has qualified for the state contest.  Members of the team; Dace Grooms, Evan Hunter and Tyler Thieme finished 3rd out of all 4 area's present, and 2nd in our own area to advance to the state contest to be held at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo in March.  This team took an exam, answered questions over various tractor components, and had 30 minutes to debug a tractor by finding 5 issues and correcting them in order to start the tractor.  Additionally, Tyler Thieme finished as the 7th high Individual in the entire contest.